Smooth, icy plains have been spotted on the surface of Pluto, in the latest images released Friday from a NASA spacecraft that flew by the dwarf planet this week. The plains are located north of Pluto's icy mountains

"We have actually flown through this [tail]," Fran Bagenal, a New Horizons co-investigator from the University of Colorado, Boulder, said during the press conference.

Ionized gas forms when a bunch of energy pummels atmospheric atoms and molecules. This bombardment pops electrons off the atmospheric gas particles, allowing their electrons to freely circulate. The end result is plasma: a fourth state of matter after solids, liquids, and gases.

As far as we know, plasma is the most common state of matter in the universe. There's simply a lot of energy pouring out of stars, and a lot of gas floating in space to form plasma. So, while it might seem surprising, plasma tails like Pluto's aren't new. They even exist behind other planets in the Solar System, including Venus and Mars.

Adjacent to the hills are regions covered by small pits that scientists predict could have formed via sublimation

An embarrassingly poor grasp of the English language for someone who's job is supposed to be reporting...They aren't predicting anything!!!!!! The appropriate term to apply there would be "assume" or "surmise".

Seems ridiculous to use the word "predict" in an article full of :"the team cannot definitively say how these came to be", "This terrain is not easy to explain"and "exceeds all pre-fly expectations"

The backlighting highlights over a dozen layers of haze in Pluto’s tenuous but distended atmosphere. The image was taken from a distance of 11,000 miles (18,000 kilometers) to Pluto; the scene is 780 miles (1,250 kilometers) wide.

Owing to its favorable backlighting and high resolution, this MVIC image also reveals new details of hazes throughout Pluto’s tenuous but extended nitrogen atmosphere. The image shows more than a dozen thin haze layers extending from near the ground to at least 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the surface. In addition, the image reveals at least one bank of fog-like, low-lying haze illuminated by the setting sun against Pluto’s dark side, raked by shadows from nearby mountains.http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-wows- ... t-panorama

Smooth, icy plains have been spotted on the surface of Pluto, in the latest images released Friday from a NASA spacecraft that flew by the dwarf planet this week. The plains are located north of Pluto's icy mountains

I have not found information on the mechanical properties of frozen nitrogen, can it flow at such low temperatures? How hard is it? Anyway, this looks like a case of ice having filled in the electrically formed crater and plasma cut channels.

In order to change an existing paradigm you do not struggle to try and change the problematic model. You create a new model and make the old one obsolete. -Buckminster Fuller

There's a nice double "crater" on the left hand side 2/3 the way up Steve ... very similar to an example on Mars.... a "ridge" seperating the two lobes ... process's at work that do not distinquish between distance from the Sun here? ... throwing caution at the MS reasoning for topological features based on the mechanism of temp/Sun distance as the dominant modelling force? (excuding G there, which is of course the big boss )

How is there enough radiation from the sun to illuminate Pluto. This image looks as bright as our moon. I expect there is some enhancement of the image but to me, something is off here.

I admit to no technical skills that would tell me there is something amiss with this photo but in my mind Pluto is so far away from the sun that it not have a light and dark side as there would not be enough solar radiation to create such an effect.